Maryland's Public System of Higher Education

Week of January 24, 2011

News from Across the USM Campuses

Jan 26^th - Thomas Spiegelhalter Lecture: "Architecture, Sustainability, Sustainable Development." Lecture will be held from 6:15-8pm in the Architecture Building (Arch 0145), Room 0204. Thomas Spiegelhalter, Architect, Industrial Designer, Town Planner, R.A., E.U., ACE, ISES, LEED AP, will be lecturing on the topic of "Globally Benchmarked Buildings versus Green Washed Buildings: Taking a Critical Look at the Design, Resource Use, and Performance of Sustainable Buildings and Cities." The lecture is hosted by University of Maryland's Campus Sustainability Office.

Jan. 26^th - Dr. Michael Williams, UMCES - Chesapeake Biological Lab - "Trends in ecosystem health-related metrics of Chesapeake Bay (1986-2008)." The Distinguished Scholar Seminar Series is hosted by the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. Seminar will be held on Wednesday at 3:30pm in Nice Hall at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. For more information, contact Margaret Palmer.

Jan. 27^th  - Christopher Duffy, Pennsylvania State University?- "The Age of Water:  Time and Memory in Watershed Systems."?The Seminar Series is hosted by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's Appalachian Laboratory. Seminar will be held on Thursday at 3:30pm in Room 109 at the Appalachian Laboratory. For more information, contact Andrew Elmore.

Assessing The Health Of The Gulf, Post-Spill (Reported by Ira Flatow, NPR - Talk of the Nation, 1/21/11) [Dr. Donald F. Boesch, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science is a member of President Obama's Gulf Oil Spill Commission]

State of Maryland News

How wasteful are we, really? (By Tim Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun - B'More Green Blog, 1/21/11)

Perdue going solar (By Tim Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun - B'More Green Blog, 1/20/11)

Growing interest in home beekeeping sets off Howard zoning dispute: More people raising bees for honey, pollination, but opponents fear stingers (By Larry Carson, The Baltimore Sun, 1/19/11)

USM Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change Initiative

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Aging and failed satellites jeopardize efforts to collect data on climate change (By Emmarie Huetteman, The Washington Post, 1/24/11)

Giant Snails Monitor Air Pollution In Russia (By Joanna Zelman, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 1/23/11)

Steep Oil Prices, Food Shortages Will Likely Spark Deadly Riots This Year: From now on, rising prices, powerful storms, severe droughts and floods, and other unexpected events are likely to play havoc with the fabric of global society. (By Michael T. Klare, TomDispatch.com as reported by Alternet.org, 1/23/11)

Europe Begins to Run Short of Water: Half of the Czech Republic's population could face water shortages because of climate change, a top climate change expert has warned. (By Pavol Stracansky, IPS News, 1/22/11)

Gulf Oil Spill Blood Tests Reveal Alarming Levels Of Toxic Chemicals In Residents (By Zoe Triska, The Huffington Post - Green Blog, 1/22/11)

For Many Species, No Escape as Temperature Rises (By Elisabeth Rosenthal, The New York Times - Environment, 1/21/11)

Study claims 100 percent renewable energy possible by 2030 - New research has shown that it is possible and affordable for the world to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, if there is the political will to strive for this goal. (By Lin Edwards. Physorg.com, 1/19/11)

How sustainable is growth with triple-digit oil? (By Jeff Rubin, The [Canada] Globe and Mail, 1/19/11)

Full Speed Ahead on Deepwater Drilling (By Clifford Krauss, The New York Times - Green Blog, 1/19/11)

Toyota is Working on Electric Motors that Don't Require Chinese Rare Earths (By Michael Graham Richard, Treehugger.com, 1/18/11)

2010 Hits Top of Temperature Chart (By Alexandra Giese, Earth Policy Institute, 1/18/11)

Rainfall Patterns Can't Be Ignored in Climate Change Debate: In discussions of human activities that affect the climate, there is relatively little talk about alterations in rainfall patterns, despite the enormous implications that such changes have on human survival. (By Mario Osava, IPS News, 1/17/11)